Canto XIV

human use created, It first directeth its impoverished way. Curs findeth it thereafter, coming downward, More snarling than their puissance demands, And turns from them disdainfully its muzzle. It goes on falling, and the more it grows, The more it finds the dogs becoming wolves, This maledict and misadventurous ditch. Descended then through many a hollow gulf, It finds the foxes so replete with fraud, They fear no cunning that may master them. Nor will I cease because another hears me; And well ’twill be for him, if still he mind him Of what a truthful spirit to me unravels. Thy grandson I behold, who doth become A hunter of those wolves upon the bank Of the wild stream, and terrifies them all. He sells their flesh, it being yet alive; Thereafter slaughters them like ancient beeves; Many of life, himself of praise, deprives. Blood-stained he issues from the dismal forest; He leaves it such, a thousand years from now In its primeval state ’tis not re-wooded.” As at the announcement of impending ills The face of him who listens is disturbed, From whate’er side the peril seize upon him; So I beheld that other soul, which stood Turned round to listen, grow disturbed and sad, When it had gathered to itself the word. The speech of one and aspect of the other Had me desirous made to know their names, And question mixed with prayers I made thereof, Whereat the spirit which first spake to me Began again: “Thou wishest I should bring me To do for thee what thou’lt not do for me; But since God willeth that in thee shine forth Such grace of his, I’ll not be chary with thee; Know, then, that I Guido del Duca am. My blood was so with envy set on fire, That if I had beheld a man make merry, Thou wouldst have seen me sprinkled o’er with pallor. From my own sowing such the straw I reap! O human race! why dost thou set thy heart Where interdict of partnership must be? This is Renier; this is the boast and honor Of the house of Calboli, where no one since Has made himself the heir of his desert. And not alone his blood is made devoid, ’Twixt Po and mount, and sea-shore and the Reno, Of good required for truth and for diversion; For all within these boundaries is full Of venomous roots, so that too tardily By